Because when someone in a protected group commits a crime, the weenies dance around trying to decide whether it is a 'hate crime' or not.

To Maryland officious jackassesofficials: knock it off. These little dirtbags committed- at least- assault and battery, and a strong case could probably be made for attempted murder. Stop playing your damned politically-correct games and charge them with the damn crimes. And put their sorry asses in jail.

Malkin also points to this piece of dirtbag behavior and official idiocy:A Boston firefighter is mending from what could have been deadly stab wounds he suffered early yesterday morning when he was allegedly jumped in East Boston while off duty by a group of Hispanic males who told him they “don’t want any gringo here.”

Though police are not classifying the incident as racially fueled, the Boston Police Department’s Community Disorders Unit is investigating. The 32-year-old jake, whose name officials were not releasing, is white.

Gee, bunch of latino dirtbags attack a white guy and try to murder him, saying they "don't want any gringo here"(any guesses about how many of these little bastards are illegals?), and the Boston PD is playing word games. Note to Boston PD: read the above advice to MA idiots like yourselves.

Friday, December 07, 2007

by Sen. Harry Reid(Backstabber-NV), and the response from Sen. Arlen Specter(Two-Faced Weenie-PA). I just love it that after all the crap he's pulled over time, Specter gets so bent out of shape(in a very dignified, senatorial way, of course) over this. Besides that, his response was lame. The PROPER response would be something like:"That's very interesting. Senator Reid has the hand of George Soros so far up his ass it's tickling his tonsils, and he calls someone else a puppet? Interesting."

George MacFarlane, the Fredericton shopkeeper who discharged his shotgun at departing thieves, should count himself lucky. Found guilty of careless use of a firearm, he's been ordered to take an "anger-management" course (though, in truth, he seems to manage his anger with an impressively cool efficiency). In England, by contrast, a Norfolk farmer who did exactly as Mr. MacFarlane did in exactly the same circumstances (he'd suffered repeated break-ins) now finds himself charged with murder. His victim, a teenage burglar from Nottingham who practised his profession assiduously throughout the English Midlands and East Anglia, was described by his tearful mum as a "lovable rogue" with many redeeming qualities: for example, "he would never steal from the family."

Though different in degree, both prosecutions reflect the long-held principle that the Crown should have a monopoly on law enforcement: Relax, goes the argument; the Mounties always they get their man -- i.e., leave it to the professionals. But in practice, in both Canada and Britain, the professionals find it easier to get you instead.

In France?

Frederic Pons, the editor of Valeurs Actuelles, a magazine where Anne-Lorraine had worked as an intern, wrote on the magazine's blog: "When will this rapist with his knife leave prison? After 8, 10, 15 years? Our society must pluck up the courage to remove him from society once and for all. If we do not do this the fathers, the brothers, the uncles will. In the name of justified violence."

The next day Mr. Pons removed his post from his blog. His text was deemed an incitement to violence. It is taboo in Europe to say that if the state fails to protect the citizens, the citizens should do so themselves. There is no Second Amendment in Europe. Even European politicians from the so-called "right," like Mr. Sarkozy, are horrified at the suggestion that citizens should be allowed to protect themselves against criminals. Last year, Mr. Sarkozy told French radio: "Security is the responsibility of the state. I am against the private ownership of firearms. If you are assaulted by an armed burglar, he will use his weapon more effectively than you anyway, so you are risking your life."

Kevin pointed this out in a comment the other day, and it's a truly disgusting example of "Let the State take care of you. Or else." If you are assaulted by an armed burglar, he will use his weapon more effectively than you anyway, so you are risking your life. DAMN it. Mr. Sarkozy, when you're attacked by an 'armed burglar', your life is ALREADY IN DANGER! How the HELL could you make it worse by using a weapon to defend yourself?

even here.In response to recent announcements regarding a proposal to make English the official language of the state of Oklahoma, Senator Jeff Rabon on Thursday said he will do everything in his power to ensure such a measure would not win the approval of the Senate....“I feel like this highlights an intolerance and insensitivity to our history and background,” said Rabon, D-Hugo...."We have folks here from all over the world, but we also have more than 40 Indian tribes all with their own unique language. I think we ought to be going the other direction and doing more to honor and highlight the fact that we have so many sovereign nations with their own languages and cultures.”

Left unspoken is how many languages he things drivers license tests should be given in, how many languages voting ballots should be printed in, etc.

If not, check them out. Very short version of the beginning:Distant future, the world is run by the UN: it is THE World Government in all ways. Including the maintenance of and- very vital point here- the teaching of history. It had been determined that it was a Bad Thing for the peasantspeople to have unfettered access to history as They Will Get Bad Ideas.

So all history taught in schools has been edited and rewritten to serve the purposes of the UN. There were never any wars, no, just occasional international arguments back in the inefficient days of national sovereignty(which was done away with very quickly as the UN is so much better); weapons? no, just misused tools; and the only time people are violent is when they have a mental disturbance and need treatment. Competitive games have pretty much been done away with because people who compete and try to win are more difficult to controlguide in the proper paths of life. And anyone who discovers something of past history or turns out to be unwilling to be properly guided disappears into prison camps where they can't infect others.

What's one of the essentials to even approach, let alone run, such a system? Control- as close to absolute as possible- of information. So the UN controls the phones, the data networks, all of it, with constant monitoring for words or phrases that might indicate someone stepping off the reservation. Someone gets caught at such, reaction ranges from a visit from a 'counselor' to nudge them back to the correct thought patterns to a warning to you being packed away.

What brought this to mind was a comment on a radio show a bit ago about all the 'using your cell phone will give you cancer'-type warnings. Somebody said you could make an argument that some people don't want us using a lot of our communications systems so much because it means we're passing information along without it being approved.

Possible? Hell, anything is if you're willing to argue it. Likely? In this case I don't think so. But something that is not 'likely' but is happening is attempts to control this here innernets. The UN keeps having hearings about how they should be in overall control, and I do not believe they have our own good in mind. Just like they want all personal firearms banned(only Minions of Government should be allowed such things), the bureaucrats and wannabe-tyrants want our information controlled. And our communications. And they've got lots of buttmonkeys who want to help.

Like all those 'professional journalists' who get in such a snit over blogs. We aren't one of Them, so we cannot be trusted to handle information properly. Of course, their idea of 'properly' means "We decide what you need to hear about, and in what form, and with what slant." So having a bunch of unlettered commonersuntrained non-journalists digging things up and passing information around and factchecking the ass of the 'professionals' just Should Not Be Done. Or rather, Should Not Be Allowed. After all, we don't have the 'layers of editors'(who either don't know their ass from a hole in the ground or have a viewpoint to push), we don't have the 'training in ethics'(which doesn't keep them from violating those ethics on a regular basis, and defending themselves and their cohorts for doing so). And having the UN, which is also so 'progressive'-minded, in charge of the net would be quite helpful.

Q: Do you think technology is changing [journalism]? That a good reporter will always find a venue because there are so many media outlets now?

Thomas: No, but I do think it is kind of sad when everybody who owns a laptop thinks they're a journalist and doesn't understand the ethics. We do have to have some sense of what's right and wrong in this job. Of how far we can go. We don't make accusations without absolute proof. We're not prosecutors. We don't assume.

Q: So if there's this amateur league of journalists out there, trying to do what you do...

Thomas: It's dangerous.

So are you, you sorry old bitch.

And let us not forget the islamists. They hate and detest the UN and all the other boards and committees of modern society, but they're quite happy to use them. They take the standard "Anything bad said about any muslim or act thereof is proof you are a racist/bigot/want to destroy Islam!" and run with it to the EU Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security or the Canadian “Human Rights Commissions” to screw over anybody who dares to speak in any way they don't like.

Do I think the UN would love to control and censor the use of the internet? Hell, yes, just like they want ownership of arms banned. Would a lot of journalists like it? Hell, yes. And a lot of national governments have been working at in on their own, usually in connection with some version of 'human rights and hate crimes' bullcrap from the EU, the UN or both. In Canada, quoting a passage from the Bible that offends someone can get you jailed. Mark Steyn has their damned 'Human Rights Council' trying to figure a way to, metaphorically or literally, keelhaul him for daring to write something that upsets the islamists. And the terminally PC go running right along with it; after all, to them 'free speech' means 'speech which we approve of and doesn't hurt the feelings of any protected species', and since they can't get everyone to agree to censor themselves, it's necessary to have the government do it.

Long ago in the 'citizen journalist vs. professional' arguments someone pointed out that bloggers are like the pamphleteers of the Revolutionary War. As a general thing I like being associated with such: just as they drove the British authorities to fury, we collectively- and some in particular- do the same to governments and tyrants- current, wannabe and information type- worldwide. Because one man or woman standing on a soapbox or doorstep telling people about something has a quite small audience, and is fairly easy to shut up if a government or thugs so decide; someone with a digital soapbox calling journalists and politicians to account and spreading information has a much larger audience and is NOT easy to shut up.

The United Nations has rejected all attempts by a group of dissenting scientists seeking to present information at the climate change conference taking place in Bali, Indonesia.

The International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC) has been denied the opportunity to present at panel discussions, side events, and exhibits; its members were denied press credentials. The group consists of distinguished scientists from Africa, Australia, India, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

"We are fair and seek all information on matters. Except that which doesn't agree with us."

Thursday, December 06, 2007

Well said!"Well. Let me break it down for you, Duhrlene. If you — my servant — are going to pass a law — and enforce that law using guns — and that law makes me and my fellow permit-holding constituants (who as I mentioned are more law abiding than the average person) so pissed off that we decide to shoot you dead over it — don’t you think that maybe, just maybe, you should rethink your position on that law?"

I realize this probably comes under what Uncle refers to as 'scaring the white people', but... I'm sick to death of being told I practically have to crawl on my belly saying "Please listen, master!" when I speak to or write to a politician. So right now, I really don't care.

is a canker on the ass of humanity, controlled by mentally diseased men who hate the very concept of individual rights and fear women so much that they do things like this: Violence against women is the only sphere where there is no discrimination between men and women. If anything, there is a policy of reverse discrimination, and women are treated more viciously. The mullahs show a particular vengeance towards women who become politically active and join the resistance. Tens of thousands have been arrested on political charges and severely tortured and executed. Many have died under torture. One method is particularly revealing: the Pasdaran (Guards Corps) fire a single bullet into the womb of the condemned women political prisoners, leaving them to bleed to death in a slow process of excruciating pain. Even pregnant women have not been spared. Hundreds, including Massoumeh Qajar-Azdanloo, Azar Reza'i, Zahra Nozari, Nayyereh Khosravi and Parvin Mostofi, have been executed with their unborn children.

And this, just in case you need something else to get your blood pressure spiking: According to a "religious" decree, virgin women prisoners must as a rule be raped before their execution, "lest they go to Paradise." Therefore, the night before execution, a Guard rapes the condemned woman. After her execution, the religious judge at the prison writes out a marriage certificate and sends it to the victim's family, along with a box of sweets. In a written confession in January 1990, Sarmast Akhlaq Tabandeh, a senior Guards Corps interrogator, recounted one such case in Shiraz prison: "Flora Owrangi, an acquaintance of one of my friends was one such victim. The night before her execution, the resident mullah in the prison conducted a lottery among the members of the firing squads and prison officials to determine who would rape her. She was then forcibly injected with anesthesia ampoules, after which she was raped. The next day, after she was executed, the mullah in charge wrote a marriage certificate and the Guard who raped her took that along with a box of sweets to her parents."

What was it Tam said, something about self-immolating neolithic goatherds?

Unfortunately, I can't credit those who led me to this properly: it was a 'somebody linked to this which mentioned this which led to this which-' things. Which also led to something I didn't lose track of:Now imagine how many women would report a rape if she needed 4 male witnesses or 8 female witnesses to the act! If you had to take a guess, how many rapes are committed within eyeshot of so many witnesses? I doubt that there are 1 in a hundred, unless of course you count the 8 Muslim men doing the raping since they love to gang-rape their victims. Even more: how many victims would come forward if they knew that they themselves would be prosecuted for having sex outside of marriage if they couldn't prove the rape? And more: how many would come forward if they knew that they themselves would be hanged if they couldn't prove they were raped?

they're supposed to be. And if you're stupid enough to do this, you deserve to receive toothmarks.The gardener, Giovanni Rivera, was attacked in June by a German shepherd named Congo and four other dogs at a Princeton home where he did landscaping. Charges were filed against the family who owned the dogs, and Rivera received an insurance settlement of $250,000...

James [the owner of Congo] contends the men showed up early when the dogs were eating, and disregarded his calls for them to stay in their vehicle. He said Congo attacked Rivera after the panicked gardener grabbed his wife from behind and pulled her down, causing her to scream.

I read the article, and found these little nuggets:Much of the public discussion has centered on Rivera's immigration status. Neither Riechelson, the James family, their lawyer, or the prosecutor said they know whether Rivera is here legally, nor do they care, saying that it wasn't relevant to the case. (bold mine)

Otis described some of the comments directed at Rivera as "very disturbing" and questioned whether public opinion would be different if the victim had been a child or a non-immigrant.

That thought was echoed by some Hispanic immigrants in Princeton.

"Maybe they would have killed the dog already," said Oscar, a Guatemalan immigrant who didn't want to give his full name because he's in the country illegally. "This country values Americans."

Why, yes, jackass, we DO value Americans. More than illegal aliens, most of us. Deal with it. As to the rest, gee, I wonder if, possibly being here illegally and- like many such- not being too good with English, maybe Mr. Rivera didn't understand when the homeowner said "Stay in the truck"? Hmmm, it is to ponder...

Years ago when Wife #1 and I bought our first house, we got a dog. Near as we could tell was half either Lab or Weimeraner and half (probably) Springer Spaniel. Solid black, long fur like a Springer, smart and very protective. One day we were working on lunch when the dog started barking. First it was "One of those people is here" barking, which meant meter reader. Then it changed to "YOU are not supposed to be here!" barking. Serious barking. Wife went out to see as I had my hands full and about five seconds after she went out I heard her say "Just read it and get out!"

And then the dog went nuts. This wasn't just warning barking anymore, it was "You're dead meat!" snarling. I hit the door at a run and discovered an interesting little tableau:Wife holding dog by collar.Meter reader holding a piece of 2x4 about two feet long, waving it at the dog.Dog dragging wife forward.I found out later this idiot, instead of reading the meter and walking out when the dog barked at him- like every other reader did- picked up the 2x4 and shook it at him. That violated Rule #1 of dog/meter reader etiquette, causing the 'get out' barking. And then, when wife grabbed the collar and told the idiot to finish up and leave, he actually took a step toward them and shook the board again. Dog took this to mean "Normal rules do not apply to this two-leg, he's threatening the alpha female!" and he went into full defend-the-pack mode.

This dog weighed about 40 pounds as I recall and, as I say, was dragging my 110lb. wife forward as he tried to reach the idiot. I tackled the dog, wrapped both arms around him and held on. After a few moments he stopped trying to get loose as he realized the boss didn't want him to chew up the intruder(I didn't want to add any more yelling to the situation), and alpha female was running the intruder out. With loud and abusive words.

Idiot left, wife went in to call the electric company, and I sat there telling the dog he'd done good protecting her, but it was time to calm down now. Which he did.

Bad thing about the aftermath was that forevermore he would not let anybody he didn't know in without challenge; idiot had broken all the rules and all meter readers were now considered suspect.

But nobody, nobody, ever tried to get into our yard without permission.

Oh, later found out they'd had several complaints about this idiot and he wound up being fired. Do not be a meter reader if you can't deal with dogs: they're supposed to protect their territory.

or if it'll disappear until after he's(he hopes) elected?MANCHESTER, NH—Senator Barack Obama today will issue a “Call to Serve” and detail his commitment to making national service an important cause of his presidency in a major policy address at Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa.

In his campaign, Obama has enlisted hundreds of thousands of Americans to join him in working for change that America can believe in. As President, Obama will increase opportunities for Americans of all ages to serve their country. In his remarks, Obama plans to discuss his personal experience in public service, as well as his plan to call on Americans from all walks of life to serve and to build an architecture that focuses their service toward achieving leading national goals.

Yes, Comrade Stalin, a wonderful idea! They will serve the party- er, Motherland!country!

Among all the 'double the size of' and 'new agencies' and so on, there's this:* Establish a goal of having middle and high-schoolers contribute at least 50 hours a week to community service, and reach that goal through national guidelines for service-learning and additional resources for schools to develop successful programs.

I don't give a rats ass if that's a misprint and it's actually '5' hours, this is the same kind of crap we heard at previous elections along the lines of "I will require students complete x hours of volunteer service or they don't get their diploma." That's not 'voluntary service' and this isn't 'community service', it's involuntary servitude. You socialist bastard.

Read the whole damn thing. Doesn't it sound like, with slight rewording, it could've come out of the Soviet Union? Or something you'd expect to hear from the PRC today?

Had a chance to hit the outdoor range today, partly just for fun and partly to try out those cast bullet loads I mentioned the other day.

With my standard DISCLAIMER: these loads work well for me in my firearms: they may not in some others. Use at your OWN PERIL, I'll pass on the loads.#1 7.62x54r is Hotshot or Prvi Partisan brass I picked up at the range a while back(can't tell which), 150-grain RCBS flatnose gas-checked bullet and 16.0 grains of 2400 powder. Bullet seated up to the crimp groove and lightly crimped.#2 Same brass, 110-grain Lyman spitzer gas-checked bullet, same powder charge.

This is the same load I dug up a couple of years(with the 150-grain bullet) ago for .30-06. With 7.62x54r being pretty close in case capacity, also being a strong bolt-action rifle and with this being a mild practice load, I tried it. Quite good results in both, and with both bullets in 7.62. I had to set the rear sight at the 400-meter mark on the M39- interestingly, same setting in yards on the 1903- to put it dead on at 50 yards. At 100, had to move the sights- on both- up to about 550. In the M39 this had the 150-grain bullets grouping right at the top edge of the 6" bull with a 6 o'clock hold, and this load gave groups averaging about 2". Which is pretty good for a .309" bullet going through a .310 bore. The 110-grain bullet hit a little higher but didn't group nearly as well. For practice out to 50 either would do nicely. Low recoil and good accuracy, what more could you ask for?

I also tried something out in .22. While back I mentioned I was going to get some match-grade ammo to try out in the Martini and see just what a difference it made; Sportsman's Warehouse carries some, the Eley Match EPS* to be specific, and I got a box last time I was there.

Eley has come up with a bullet design for their match stuff: flat nose with a flat-tip spike in the center. Undoubtedly some engineers and ballistics experts sweated coming up with and testing this design, it's what they use in their best match ammo, and the grade or two below.

I'll point out, as evidence that the 'grade or two below' probably consists of ammo that didn't meet the specs for the Ultimate, that the noses on the ammo were not real consistent: some had low, badly-defined spikes and slightly rounded corners on the point.

How'd it do? If I did my part, it gave 1.5 to 1.75" groups at 100 yards. Which ain't bad, except that Eley Sport and Federal Champion will do the same out of this rifle at MUCH less cost. The Match cost $12 for a box: Sport runs about $2 now and the Federal about $1.50. The Match may have been a touch more consistent, but not nearly enough to be worth the difference in price. Some day when I run across some of the Ultimate I may pick up a box of it to try, see if it gives enough of a better result to be worth keeping some around, but it's not something I'm going to go digging for. Not at $15/box

*All they had was the Match, and unless I'm sending an order to Midway or someplace so I can add a box on, I'm not ordering the stuff. Not just a box to try out.

A grandfather has been given a prison sentence for racial harassment after calling a Welsh woman "English".

Mick Forsythe used the term during an argument over a scratched car in his Welsh home town.

He called the vehicle's owner, Lorna Steele, an "English bitch".

She and her husband took great offence at the jibe and decided to take him to court.

The 55-year-old former lorry driver was found guilty of racially aggravated disorderly behaviour, and received a ten-week prison sentence suspended for 12 months.

You know, I've been known to make comments about the cursed sassenach and other such statements of endearment(especially when wearing a kilt), but I never, even in my most whiskey-addled weird moments considered English(or Scots or Irish or whatever) a 'race'.

I'd buy a second menorah. One that used big candles. BIG ones. 'Why are peasants carrying torches in that house?' big. Friggin' idiots.

Totally unconnected- except for the fact that it concerns more friggin' idiots who, in this case, should be fired after being caned in the hallway outside the personnel office- are these clowns in our 'intelligence' community. After they were caned and thrown out the door there could be an announcement: "Your job is to provide information and, when asked for, estimates. NOT to decide what information the administration gets, NOT how to 'slant' it, NOT to use your position to push your own political views. We've got a lot more rattan sticks, people, don't make us use them."

Added: I just saw this and, since I'm on the subject of friggin' idiots, Mr. Stephen Smith has to enter the listing."And when you look at the internet business, what's dangerous about it is that people who are clearly unqualified get to disseminate their piece to the masses. I respect the journalism industry, and the fact of the matter is ...someone with no training should not be allowed to have any kind of format whatsoever to disseminate to the masses to the level which they can. They are not trained. Not experts." Bold mine.

Ah, yes, the 'experts'. Mr. Smith, we've gotten tired of the 'expertise' of the clowns in your industy, which is a large reason why us bloggers say mean things about you. And try to correct the errors you 'experts' throw at us, and the slanted and edited information. And make fun of you, you friggin' idiot.

Mohammed Bear - Mohammed Bear fools all the other Bears (except Dhimmi Bear who is forced) into believing he is Holy. His followers go on to continually divide and harass the world while claiming to be victims. What a tricksey Bear he is!

A dinosaur that was partly mummified instead of petrified:Although the first dinosaur mummy was found a century ago, the newly described fossil is striking because it contains soft tissues from the original beast.

The remains of the uncollapsed skin envelope of the tail, arm, and legs of the Hadrosaur were uncovered in a rocky tomb in North Dakota to reveal fossilised skin and tendons that, under the gaze of an advanced scanner, provide a unique and tantalising glimpse of the 3D innards of a dinosaur.

All kinds of interesting things out of this. The changes in how this thing looked sounds like something a Drake character said in Time Safari: that so much of what we 'know' about extinct species is based on guesswork that damn near all of it is subject to change the moment we find something that gives more hard information. For instance, now it's been decided that T-Rex was relatively slow and some argue he was mostly a scavenger; what if it turns out there was something about his structure that allowed him to run faster than we think from looking at the fossils?

The latest interest in Judge Weinstein doesn’t stem from any of his Page 1-worthy rulings but the more arcane question of how some of his cases got assigned to the judge in the first place. At issue is how more than a dozen lawsuits brought against the tobacco industry — and several suits against firearm manufacturers — ended up before the judge.

By and large, these suits, about 20 in all, against the tobacco and firearm industries didn’t arrive on Judge Weinstein’s docket through a “spin of the wheel” — the random case assignment process by which suits are sent to judges. Instead, plaintiffs in the know have long used an administrative shortcut to maneuver lawsuits against the same set of defendants into the courtroom of their choice. Their choice is often Judge Weinstein.

In one of Dashiel Hammetts' books a character says something like "The law is a bunch of rules written by lawyers so they can argue about them in front of other lawyers called judges, with all of them getting paid each step of the way." You can argue about points of that, but we do have a big problem with lawyers writing/influencing the writing of laws for their own benefit, and screw the people. This is a good example: screw the proper legal procedure, we want a judge we know will rule our way, so let's game the system.

Brief background: On the tarmac, an honor guard had been formed by Port of Seattle Police, airport fire and rescue and military personnel as the soldier’s body was placed on the plane.

A police officer then took the escort soldiers up to security.

The TSA screener checked everyone’s ID, including the police officer, and then had the soldiers go through the metal detectors.

Their combat ribbons and medals set off the alarms.

So what does the TSA screener do?

He has the soldiers strip off their uniforms - in front of everyone - down to their tee shirts, pants and socks.

I swear, Barney Fife was FAR more a professional than these clowns. And if he overstepped, at least he had a boss who'd actually do something to correct the situation. But then, he wasn't a 'federalized professional'.

for the moment, but apparently the actions of the 'disadvantaged youths' in this action were considered worse than those a while back. There are a couple of things in the article that just kind of jump out at you. For instance: IN retrospect, it was not a good idea to have left his pistol at home. Called to the scene of a traffic accident in the Paris suburbs last Sunday, Jean-François Illy, a regional police chief, came face to face with a mob of immigrant youths armed with baseball bats, iron bars and shotguns.

Gee whiz, you think?!?His bruised and bloodied face signalled a worrying new level of barbarity in the mainly Muslim banlieues, where organised gangs of rioters used guns against police in a two-day rampage of looting and burning last week.

Not far from where Illy was lying was a policeman who lost his right eye after being hit by pellets from a shotgun. Another policeman displayed a hole the size of a 10p coin in his shoulder where a bullet had passed through his body armour.

Altogether 130 policemen were injured, dozens by shotgun pellets and shells packed with nails that were fired from a homemade bazooka. It prompted talk of urban “guerrilla warfare” being waged on French streets against the forces of law and order.

A few paragraphs later:“It felt like they were out to kill us,” said one of the officers in Villiers-le-Bel last week. “We knew that there were weapons in the suburbs, but they have never been turned against us like that. The kids were shooting at us at close range, loading and reloading their weapons. I’ve never seen anything like it.” Bold mine.

A couple of years ago there was a big article on the muslim-dominated areas around the major cities that noted one thing known to be going on: muslim gangs would steal luxury cars, smuggle them to eastern Europe and take payment partly in money, partly in weapons- from pistols to subguns to RPGs- and the weapons were then used to commit robberies. Considering that, and the general smuggling, they're really lucky the bigshots in the area decided it wasn't time to let the automatic weapons come out. Could be a number of things, could be they're worried about the government reaction with Sarkozy being President:At the same time he argued that, far from reflecting difficult living conditions, the violence was a result of the “thugocracy” of the suburbs, where drug-trafficking criminals held sway.

“We shouldn’t try to excuse the inexcusable,” said the president in a television address to an anxious nation on Thursday, ridiculing the left’s vision of rioters as “victims of social injustice”. He pledged that those who fired at police would be tracked down, one by one, and tried on charges of attempted murder.

I'm really liking this guy. I just hope he can stay alive and kick the government into taking serious action before things blow completely up.

Sunday, December 02, 2007

very little gun stuff and just some general posts otherwise. Combination of things.

Shift change came around, and while the sleep hours aren't that much different, I guess it's harder to deal with than it used to be(again, aging sucks). Weather has made it harder to get outside and do some things: not much bad weather, but my hands stiffen worse in cold weather than they used to, and I've gotten a bit concerned about using power tools and sharp tools at times like that.

So I haven't made much progress on the project 1911 since the last post, about the only thing has been starting to open up the mouth of the mag well a bit. Due to some things coming up, getting a barrel or other parts will have to wait a bit. I did put another 50 rounds through it, all feeding and going bang as they should.

One thing I was able to try: some cast bullet loads in 7.62x54r. A while back at the range I picked up almost a box worth of new brass, either Hotshot or Wolf Gold, that's reloadable. My M39 bore slugs at .310, so- not having a mold for .311 or .312 bullets, I took some of the .309 flat-nose gas-check bullets I originally started casting for .30-30 and loaded them up over a charge of 2400 powder. At 30 yards on the rifle side at H&H they gave about 1.25" groups off a moderately-steady rest; nice clean round holes with no sign of keyholing. So I'll reload these and try them at 50 & 100 yards next time I can get to the outdoor range.

One thing I'll add: RCBS dies for this cartridge come with two expander balls: one for .308 bullets and one for .311, so you can use the one that best fits the bore of your rifle. A very nice touch.

E-mail me

at elmtreeforge at att point net

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences. - C.S. Lewis

Y'all got on this boat for different reasons, but y'all come to the same place. So now I'm asking more of you than I have before. Maybe all. Sure as I know anything, I know this - they will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now, ten? They'll swing back to the belief that they can make people... better. And I do not hold to that. So no more runnin'. I aim to misbehave. - Capt. Mal

A Rifleman’s Prayer:Oh Lord, I would live my life in freedom, peace and happiness, enjoying the simple pleasures of hearth and home. I would die an old, old man in my own bed, preferably of sexual overexertion.

But if that is not to be, Lord, if monsters such as this should find their way to my little corner of the world on my watch, then help me to sweep those bastards from the ramparts, because doing that is good, and right, and just.

And if in this I should fall, let me be found atop a pile of brass, behind the wall I made of their corpses. Geek with a .45

"He's Black Council,", I said.

"Or maybe stupid," Ebenezar countered.

I thought about it. "Not sure which is scarier."

Ebenezar blinked at me, then snorted. "Stupid, Hoss. Every time. Only so many blackhearted villains in the world, and they only get uppity on occasion. Stupid's everywhere, every day." Ebenezar McCoy

“A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition” ― Rudyard Kipling